## Facts

- The United States prosecuted multiple plumbing-fixture manufacturers and certain officers for conspiring to fix prices and restrain trade in violation of § 1 of the Sherman Act.
- A key exhibit was a six-page set of undated, unsigned handwritten notes found in a co-defendant’s files.
- The government asserted the notes were written by a company official and reflected unlawful coordination among manufacturers.
- A former secretary familiar with the official’s handwriting testified that at least four pages were in his hand.
- The district court admitted all six pages, instructing the jury that if it found the four pages were written by the official, it could compare those pages to the remaining two to determine authorship.
- Several corporate defendants and individual officers were convicted after a jury trial and appealed, challenging evidentiary rulings (including admission of the notes) and other aspects of the trial.

## Issues

1. Whether the district court erred by admitting all six pages of handwritten notes where only four pages were authenticated by a witness, and by permitting the jury to attribute the remaining pages to the same author through handwriting comparison.
2. Whether any other claimed trial errors (including joinder, sufficiency of evidence of conspiracy, alleged variance, and jury instructions) required reversal of the Sherman Act § 1 convictions.

## Decision

- The Third Circuit affirmed the convictions.
- The court upheld admission of the notes, concluding the secretary’s testimony provided a sufficient foundation to authenticate the identified pages.
- The court held it was permissible to allow the jury, after finding the authenticated pages were genuine, to compare handwriting to determine whether the remaining pages were by the same author.
- The court rejected the remaining claims of reversible error, including challenges to joinder, the sufficiency of the conspiracy evidence, and the jury instructions.

## Legal Principles

- A writing may be authenticated by testimony from a witness with familiarity with the purported author’s handwriting.
- Once a sufficient foundation is established for authenticity, the trier of fact may compare authenticated writing with disputed writing to determine authorship.
- The trial judge determines whether there is enough evidence for admission; disputes about authorship and credibility generally go to the weight of the evidence for the jury.
- Evidentiary rulings in a criminal trial are reviewed with deference, and any error warrants reversal only if it affected substantial rights.

## Conclusion

The Third Circuit affirmed criminal Sherman Act § 1 conspiracy convictions, holding that partial handwriting authentication supported admission of a multi-page set of notes and that the jury could compare authenticated pages to disputed pages to decide common authorship, with remaining objections failing to show reversible error.


United States v. American Radiator & Standard Sanitary Corp., 433 F.2d 174 (3d Cir. 1970)